Lift Ev'ry Voice & Sing for an Afrocentric Pedagogy Of
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LIFT EV’RY VOICE & SING FOR AN AFROCENTRIC PEDAGOGY OF MUSIC TEACHING AND LEARNING by David Wayne Robinson, Jr. Dissertation Committee: Professor Mariana Souto-Manning, Co-sponsor Professor Christopher Emdin, Co-sponsor Professor Yolanda Sealy-Ruiz Approved by the Committee on the Degree of Doctor of Education Date May 20, 2020 Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Education Teachers College, Columbia University 2020 ABSTRACT LIFT EV’RY VOICE & SING FOR AN AFROCENTRIC PEDAGOGY OF MUSIC TEACHING AND LEARNING David Wayne Robinson, Jr. Currently, Eurocentric theories and practices of urban teachers and students are often studied under a White gaze of expected deficits. Much of this research is quantitative (e.g., documenting the number of teachers of color); the qualitative research that documents the experiences of people of color usually lacks the personal lived experiences of racial marginalization that only one who has endured them can tell. Addressing this research problem, in this dissertation, I share findings generated from a 9-month autoethnographic study of my experiences in light of the blockade of anti-Black epistemologies and ontologies in (music) teacher education. Framed by Critical Race Theory, Critical Pedagogy, and Postcolonial Theory, the aim of this study is to examine the lived experiences and narratives of a Black-queer doctoral student and teacher educator—in dialogue with majority Black and Latinx preservice early childhood and elementary students in his music teacher education course—considering how Eurocentric frameworks position teachers and students. Inquiries into how curricular stories are constructed as mirrors and windows (Bishop, 1990) are woven to reveal the ways in which dominant theories and ideologies affect the discourses and identities of soon-to-be teachers and point toward the need for students and educators of color to be taught to analyze and name injustices documented within life histories, all the while transforming oppressive encounters to affirm individual and collective humanity. While the focus of this self-study and autoethnography is the researcher, this ethnographic composition of teaching and teacher education is informed by the researcher’s teacher education practices, experiences, and learnings in the context of an early childhood and elementary teacher education course for non-music majors at a primarily-Hispanic serving urban institution of higher education. It examines classroom discursive interactions and archival data (e.g. journal reflections, course assignments) using ethnographic research methods and critical narrative analysis (Souto-Manning, 2014) to make sense of data. In doing so, it co-constructs a polyphonic space for multiple perspectives to stand in counterpoint (conflict), reimagining and reclaiming the discourses that purport to hold knowledge about peoples of color lived experiences. Findings are rendered by engagement with a range of Afrocentric visual and multimodal data. © Copyright David Wayne Robinson, Jr. 2020 All Rights Reserved ii DEDICATION para Arden Street, Dyckman, NYC. Gracias por todo, Yuuuherrrdt! -Deejay iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The most heartfelt moment of this entire project has been taking the opportunity to thank all of those whom contributed to its completion. While I will inevitably and inadvertently omit someone’s name from these acknowledgements; as we say down South, “charge it to my mind not my heart,” it is my sincerest hope that everyone understands my deepest gratitude extends far beyond these pages and out to all of you that have carried me in this journey. I would not have been able to make it this far, much less start this tedious journey without the unconditional love and support of my family. From my parents, Lee Smith and David Robinson, Sr., I have learned what it means to sacrifice and struggle, to love hard and long for peace and happiness. I am made in your images. Thank you for giving me life. From my aunties, uncles, y primas, I have learned to fully know who I am, to laugh, and to listen. For my brother, Tauquez Elfthaniel Mann, it often breaks my heart that you are not here in-flesh with me. Yet, I am so blessed that I feel your spirit and hear your voice every day, and every time I step foot in a classroom. Your love surrounds me in the stillest moments when I think I am alone. I know you and the ancestors are smiling. I could not have done this without y’all. Two thumbs up—GUWOP. PCNYC has provided me with a professional opportunity to teach in this extraordinary city, where I have gained 20/20 vision and respect for the work that is done in public education. I am particularly indebted to Eleanor Armour-Thomas and Daisuke Akiba for their talks, candor, and support. Most importantly, I am eternally grateful to the iv MUSIC 3000 students for providing me with the most creative, vulnerable, and joyous teaching experience of my life. Although it may be seen as “brown noising” to say, I honestly cannot imagine a better dissertation committee than the one which I have been blessed to work with. I sincerely thank y’all for enwrapping me in your arms while standing on your shoulders. Yolanda Sealy-Ruiz, my second reader, has been a healer from the moment I first met her. Just as important, she has respected me enough to listen and reaffirm my humanity. Thank you, Yolie, for helping me find my voice to sing again. In Mariana Souto-Manning, my co-chair, I found a brilliant critical teacher educator, early childhood and elementary teacher, and above all, someone I call mi tia. Her passion for critical dialogue, sharp tone, and keen analytics have been exemplars for me to follow. Thank you, Mariana for teaching me how to not only fly, but soar. And, insisting my questions can change me, and possibly the world. You are a miracle worker. I hope to continue working with and learning from you in the future. Without my quintessential mentor (or, is it preacher teacher educator) and co- chair Christopher Emdin, I would not have fully realized my potential, power, and freedom to complete this project. Chris, your tenacity to merge theory with practice by unapologetically owning and communicating your hood and academic identities helped set me free. I knew that I needed to work with you from the moment I saw one of your speeches on YouTube as a second-year graduate student at Boston University. Your guidance over the past three years have without question, been one of the greatest highlights of my graduate career and life. Additionally, your spiritual and intellectual v support have sustained me under the most oppressive and depressing conditions of my personal and professional life. Thank you for being a model of Black excellence. To Teachers College (TC) administrators and TC music and music education program, thank you for the minor setbacks for extraordinary comebacks. Lights out. To supportive colleagues afar, Shirley and Travis, your unexpected literature resources, advice and critiques, conversations and/or financial gift, made crafting this composition much more bearable. I am particularly grateful to colleagues and comrades near: Pablo, Lin, Ruth, Yan, Martin, and Mercedes for their sacrifices, hugs, meals, reassurances, organizing, and fight during this process. Your love and activism sustained me and fed my spirit. This dissertation was written during what was the most turbulent period in my personal and professional life to date. As such, the only way I knew how to work through and make sense of trauma as an artist was to organize this composition as music—at times having shorter sentences, other times seemingly long verses before arriving at a cadence. This was a purposeful choice to account for the tonalities, rhythm, and improvisation of my experiences as representation of the rhythm & blues of a community that cared enough to listen and nurse me back to health; while loving me deeply enough to keep it real. Your music, support, friendship, and love have been the midwifery for a severely tattered spirit. Esto es para nosotras. Muchas gracias mi gente. -Deejay vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I-INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................1 Background of the Problem ...................................................................................10 Statement of the Problem .......................................................................................10 Rationale for the Study ..........................................................................................16 Conceptual Framework ..........................................................................................19 Go Fo’ Broke .........................................................................................................19 Statement of Purpose and Research Questions ......................................................26 Researcher Role/Positionality ................................................................................28 Definitions of Terms ..............................................................................................32 Significance of the Study .......................................................................................35 Conclusion……………………………………………………………….38 Chapter II-ON TALENT, TESTS, AND TOILETS ..............................................39 Whiteness and/in Music Teacher Education…………………………......42 A Literature Chorus of Hierarchy, Assimilation, and Racism ...............................46 Agents,